- firm, strict, or uncompromising: stern discipline.
- hard, harsh, or severe: a stern reprimand.
- rigorous or austere; of an unpleasantly serious character: stern times.
- grim or forbidding in aspect: a stern face.
- the after or rear part of a vessel (often opposed to bow or stem): The ship's stern was a glory of brightly painted carved figures of knights and mythical beasts.
- the back or rear of anything.
- the constellation Puppis.
- the tail of a hound.
- to be the person paddling, steering, working, etc., at the rear of (a vessel): When you're bird-watching, it's much better to be paddling up front than sterning the canoe.
- to propel or steer (a vessel) with the after or rear part leading: We pulled up to the dock 15 minutes later and managed to stern in before dark.
- U.S. violinist, born in Russia.
- U.S. physicist, born in Germany: Nobel Prize 1943.
- variant of sterno- before a vowel: sternite.
- showing uncompromising or inflexible resolve; firm, strict, or authoritarian
- lacking leniency or clemency; harsh or severe
- relentless; unyielding
- having an austere or forbidding appearance or nature
- the rear or after part of a vessel, opposite the bow or stem
- the rear part of any object
- the tail of certain breeds of dog, such as the foxhound or beagle
- relating to or located at the stern
- Isaac. 1920–2001, US concert violinist, born in (what is now) Ukraine
